January transfer window: China's million-dollar dream of soccer world domination

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Oscar signed for Chelsea in 2012, scoring 38 goals in 203 appearances. At Shanghai SIPG, he'll be earning a reported $491,000 a week.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

No wonder the fans are celebrating. It might not be seen as a traditional football superpower, but Chinese clubs have splashed out millions of dollars on some of the world's top players -- and not just for Oscar...

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Brazilian striker Hulk moved from Russian side Zenit Saint Petersburg to Shanghai SIPG for a reported fee of $61 million. Here he celebrates bagging a goal against Henan Jianye, only to be carried off injured minutes later.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

In the wake of heavy spending throughout the transfer window, Jiangsu Suning FC agreed a landmark deal for Brazilian trickster, Alex Teixeira. The former Shakhtar Donetsk man cost just shy of $56 million.

A former club-mate and compatriot of Oscar, Ramires was signed by Jiangsu Suning of the China Super League from Chelsea on January 27, 2016 for a reported initial fee of nearly $28 million.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Corinthians playmaker Renato Augusto reportedly turned down a lucrative offer from a German club to join Beijing Guoan. "There was a very good offer from Germany, three times more than I make here at Corinthians," Renato was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post. "But then came an offer I couldn't refuse."

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Darko Matic (R) has had a lot to celebrate since moving to China nearly 10 years ago. He's now plays for Changchun Yatai Matic, has learned Mandarin and is considering remaining in the country after his career ends.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Former Arsenal and Roma winger Gervinho (seen playing for Ivory Coast) completed a transfer of nearly $20 million to Hebei China Fortune in the China Super League.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Colombian Fredy Guarin (right) was moved by Inter Milan to Shanghai Greenland Shenhua for a reported fee of $14 million in January 2016.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson (R) attending a training session of his previous team Shanghai SIPG. Eriksson signed former Sunderland and Al-Ain striker Asamoah Gyan last year, and moved to Chinese League One side Shenzen FC earlier this year.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Former Brazil and Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari -- now head coach of Asian Champions League winners FC Guangzhou Evergrande -- reacts during the international friendly match against Bayern Munich on July 23, 2015.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Erik Paartalu (#6 with former team Brisbane Roar) lasted one year in the Chinese Super League with Tianjin Teda F.C. -- an experience he called "one of the most challenging times in my life, but also one of the most rewarding."

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury has found a welcoming home in China, where he has remained since 2010. He is pictured celebrating after his team, the Beijing Ducks, won their first-ever Chinese championship behind his 41 points in March, 2012.

Didier Drogba (far left) and Nicolas Anelka (second from right) attending a training session in Shanghai. Their spells in China didn't last long though and the pair exited in 2013.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Shanghai Shenhua fans reacted with fervor after Drogba arrived at Pudong international airport in Shanghai on July 14, 2012. Though Drogba was reportedly signed on a £200,000 per week salary, he left China only six months later.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

An Ultra supporter of Beijing Guoan shows a tattoo of the team's badge during a match against Chongcing Lifan.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

There are growing legions of ardent supporters and fans of Chinese football clubs. The government is also trying to foster a football culture in the country by mandating football programs in 20,000 Chinese schools in a plan devised by President Xi Jinping to make China a football power.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

This photo taken on June 20, 2015 shows fans (foreground) wearing the colors of the Beijing Guoan team as they watch the team's Chinese Super League match against Tianjin Teda in Beijing.

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Photos:The big-spending Chinese Super League

Chinese football's top tier is now the most watched league in Asia, and in a strictly controlled society matches offer the rare sight of tens of thousands of people in spontaneous displays of emotion, joy and anger.

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Story highlights

CSL teams break domestic transfer marks

Ramires, Gervinho, Guarin arrive from Europe

Martinez deal breaks Chinese record

Ex-Brazil coach at champions Guangzhou

(CNN)For well-known soccer players who have given Europe a good run, plying their trades in the ambitious Chinese Super League is becoming a popular career move.

Foreigners not new

A photo posted by Paulinho⚽⚽ (@paulinhop8) on Sep 12, 2015 at 10:41pm PDT

Signing foreigners is nothing new for Chinese clubs, who have been operating under a 4+1 policy (four internationals plus one Asian Football Confederation player) since the league was formed 12 years ago.

In fact, more than 150 Brazilians alone have played in the CSL, with 22 of them involved in the 2015 campaign, according to the Mailman Group, a Chinese sports strategy agency.

But what's unusual about this activity -- aside from record-breaking fees achieved while China's economy is slowing -- is that recognizable players from big clubs are moving to a wild-card league while still in their footballing prime.

"A few years back it wasn't like that. It was not possible for Chinese clubs to sign big players like they are doing now," Darko Matic, a Croatian midfielder with Beijing Guoan entering his tenth year playing in China, told CNN.

"Maybe 10 or 15 years ago Chinese teams would sign players who are finishing their careers, like 35 or 36-year-old players," he adds. "Now they are signings who are really in a good football age.

"Of course, if you want players at a good footballing age to come to China -- to come to a country where the football is still developing -- you have to pay more than the market value of the player, really."

Continental leap

And how. A few of the most recent crop have made the cross-continental leap after peaking in Europe, with their previous club's brand recognition playing in their favor.

Ramires had his moments as a Chelsea first-team player, but became an afterthought in a dysfunctional unit this season. It's safe to say no club in Europe would have paid nearly as much for the man who notched only six goals in his last 50 appearances.

Striker Gervinho was considered a bust at Arsenal before becoming a pivotal player in Italy's Serie A with AS Roma, scoring 17 goals in 71 appearances.

So far, China's brief spotlight on the international stage stood at the 2002 World Cup, where the team failed to score a single goal. The tournament was hosted by regional neighbors South Korea and Japan -- countries that have advanced far ahead of China in soccer terms.

"Are they overpaying? In a word yes," says Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at the UK's Salford University, who says the CSL is partly funded by the state, though to what degree is unclear.

"It's a brand positioning statement. It's telling the world 'We're here and this is what we're doing,'" he adds. "In terms of China's reputation to be an important nation globally, to be good at football is a large part of that."

Importing talent on the pitch and in management also serves as a way to raise the standard of the league, says Chadwick, citing the success of Guangzhou Evergrande.

The two-time Asian Champions League winner and five-time defending league champion is coached by Brazilian World Cup winner Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Former England and Manchester City coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has been in China since 2013. His club Shanghai SIPG signed Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan last year, and features two Brazilians and an Argentine.

Headline-grabbing transfers should come with a caveat, says Matic. Teams should look for talents who have a record of stability at former clubs, and who are not easily rattled by a change of system.

"They have to sign players and coaches who are here to help Chinese football develop, not only to come here for the money," he says. "If you see a coach who is changing teams every six months, then he is probably not the right type of guy to sign."

Buying prestige through soccer

Another fuel to the footballing economy is the status that owning a major sports team can bring to a spectacularly wealthy entrepreneur, Chadwick says.

In 2013 former Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka abruptly departed Shanghai Greenland Shenhua FC, where the latter served as player-coach, for more familiar European pastures.

One month later Shanghai was stripped of its 2003 league title as part of a broad match-fixing crackdown. In total, 12 clubs were handed punishments, while 33 people, including disgraced officials Xie Yalong and Nan Yong, received life bans, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

"Chinese football historically has had a governance problem," says Chadwick. "While corruption standards are improving, they are still not good enough. So anyone going to play in China has to be mindful that there may still be some problems. For example, payment of fees, be it transfer fee or wages."

Cultural adaption

"There are some clubs around the league that are notoriously not on time (with payments)," says Australian player Erik Paartalu, who lasted one season with Tianjin Teda FC.

Paartalu -- who says he was paid on time -- counts the experience of moving with his fiancée to Tianjin, a city of over 14 million, as "one of the most challenging times in our lives, but it was the most rewarding."

Even so Paartalu was left scrambling to find another team after he was dropped by Tianjin just ahead of the 2014 season. Because of the league's scheduling, his only option was to sign with a club in Thailand, where he played for one year.

The cultural adaptation of big-name signings is key if they are to flourish in their new homelands, says the 6-foot 4-inch defensive midfielder, now at Melbourne City.

"It's very difficult. Every other place it's pretty easy to integrate; with China it's completely different to any other country," Paartalu says.

"Just trying to get around every day and talk to the taxi driver, that took a lot of time. Food was a problem at the start because I didn't necessarily like what I was being fed, but you find there are places to go."

Attractive salary

Like Paartalu, Matic, a rugged 6-foot defensive midfielder, fitted the mold of the foreign player Chinese clubs were looking for at the time.

"(Chinese scouts) are always watching if you are really quick; if you are a leader or really tall and can keep the ball," he says.

"My first thoughts were no, I'm not going to China," he recalls. "In Europe they don't have a great picture of China, about the infrastructure, about the people, about the culture."

After doing some research and thinking it over with his wife, however, he accepted an offer from Tianjin. The pay didn't hurt either. "I was earning five to six times more in China, so of course, it makes your decision easier, to be honest."

Two years into his Chinese experience, Matic received an offer from Beijing Guoan and elected to keep his family in China, even enrolling his daughter into a locals-only kindergarten.

"One of the reasons, of course, was money, but one of the other reasons was to see the culture and the development of such a huge country," he says.

It helped that Matic -- a polyglot who claims to speak nine languages fluently -- picked up Mandarin, and was able to communicate to his teammates and conduct interviews in the local dialect with ease "I never took one lesson," he says.

Matic, in fact, has been adopted by the Chinese as one of their own -- so much so that he is in consideration to receive a rarely-given permanent residency.

Arguably the only other Western athlete as embraced in China is the Beijing Ducks' star point guard Stephon Marbury.

Gods work is easy when living in a + space. It takes no effort to be bad but all the effort in the world to be good. pic.twitter.com/Dbq1iRFZdM

The former NBA All-Star has won three CBA championships in Beijing and has stated his intention to call China home after his basketball career ends.

"We both have one thing in common," says Matic, who has met Marbury a number of times. "If you stay for a few years in China -- if you adapt to the city, to the culture, to respect them -- you can feel and you can see the love that the people give to you.

"I played in Europe, and I never had such love from people around me and helping me so much like they do in China."